1. Technical Field
This invention relates to determining systems and, more particularly, to a system and method for determining a vehicle driver's blood/alcohol level.
2. Prior Art
In the law enforcement area, it is of great value to determine the Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) of subjects suspected of driving while intoxicated where the BAC may be subsequently used as evidence in a related court proceeding. While direct blood analysis is acceptable and widely used, it is expensive and time consuming. For many years it has been known that ethanol (the specific type of alcohol of interest) appears in the breath of an individual in a direct proportion to the individual's BAC. Thus many instruments which measure a breath sample have been designed to express the test result directly in BAC using the established and legally accepted blood breath correlation factor.
Unfortunately, such instruments have many disadvantages associated therewith. One significant drawback to using breath analyzers is the fact that there is no means for determining the person's BAC prior to pulling them over, thus some persons who are intoxicated might never be pulled over. Another drawback to breath analyzing devices becomes evident when BAC checks of the general public are performed. In order to effectively do this, the officers must constrict traffic on a roadway to one lane and physically test every person, or randomly pick persons, to perform such test on. Not only is this time consuming, but the flow of traffic is greatly impeded with this practice.
There are many instances during a person's travel where their vehicle and themselves are stationary for a period of time, like when paying at a toll booth, stopping at a traffic signal or stopping at a stop sign. It would be advantageous to have a means for remotely detecting a person's BAC during periods such as these. Not only would this increase the chances of detecting an inebriated person, it would also allow for improved flow of the general traffic without causing major delays.
Accordingly, a need remains for a system and method for determining a vehicle driver's blood/alcohol level in order to overcome the above-noted shortcomings. The present invention satisfies such a need by providing a blood alcohol determining system that is automatic in operation, reliable in use and enhances the safety of traveling on roadways. Such a system pinpoints an intoxicated person to police officers, thus allowing the officers to take actions towards safely removing them from the road. The system also eliminates the need to stop all motorists at a checkpoint, in order to search for violators. Thus, the system is very appealing to law enforcement, public officials, and law-abiding citizens.